The CBS Local article, in a departure from usual media practice, has racial descriptions of the criminals as well as photos. It just goes to show that when a threat to society becomes serious enough (namely, the armed robberies are by an organized gang on the BMT in Manhattan during rush hour, not the L train to Brooklyn or the East Side IRT to the Bronx in the middle of the night), the usual dainty rule against mentioning the blackness of black criminals is dropped.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)—Police are searching for teenage thugs targeting subway riders.

There have been at least three armed attacks recently. CBS 2’s Dave Carlin has seen pictures of the suspects and knows what they’re after.

A team of baby-faced bandits, young enough to still be in high school, is making life quite stressful in Gotham’s underworld.

Police circulating surveillance camera stills of four teenagers, including one female, allegedly working subway stations together, sometimes with a fifth suspect who has not yet been caught on camera.

“They look pretty young and it’s sad because they have such a great life ahead of them and there’s so much more they can be doing,” said Gwen Everett of Bed-Stuy.

The armed robberies are up to at least three since August, with a total of 10 victims.

Police told Carlin the suspects rob other groups of young people of their iPods, jewelry and cash, each time during crowded evening rush hours.

“By the time you know what happened they’re gone,” said Dan Parilis of Bushwick.

“It would seem there would be at least one officer or undercover on platform if it’s this large,” Midwood, Brooklyn resident Lawrence Colodney said when asked if he was surprised the gang was able to strike so easily during rush hour.

The first incident happened Aug. 15 at around 5 p.m. Police said the suspects, armed with box cutters, robbed four victims inside the Broadway/LaFayette station. Then on Sept. 24 at the same station they struck around 7 p.m., robbing three people at gunpoint as they came down the stairs. Police said that on Oct. 1 at around 7 p.m., the same four, joined by the fifth suspect, robbed three straphangers on a station platform. The victims said they believed the suspects had knives.

So far no one injured in these robberies, but police and straphangers said they are worried as the crime spree rolls on because suspects can get greedier and rougher.

“I’d certainly want it to be nipped in the bud sooner rather than later,” Bushwick resident Marcus Lowenhaupt said.

“A reminder that this kind of thing can still happen and does still happen,” Parilis added.

All four men are about 5-foot-10 and the female is 5-4. Police said she has the tattoos “Loved” and “Hated” on her arm. Some straphangers said those tattoos are half right.

The NYPD said so far this year crime in the subways is up nearly 17 percent compared to last year.

Complete descriptions of the suspects as provided by the police are as follows:

1. Black male 17-20, 5-7 to 5-10, 190 pounds, tattoo on right arm.

2. Black male, 17-20, 5-9, 180 pounds, earrings in both ears

3. Hispanic male, 17-20, 5-10 to 6-feet with braided hair. He has an Eye of Horus tattoo on his neck and spider web tattoo on his left arm.

4. Black female, 18-20 years old, 5-4, 120 pounds. She has the word “Hated” with a picture of a rose and the word “Loved” tattooed on her arm.

5. Hispanic male, 17-20, 55-10 to 6-1, 190 pounds, with a piercing in his right eyebrow.

Police ask anyone with any information to contact Crime Stoppers. You can:

If caught and convicted, what do you think the appropriate punishment is in this case? Sound off in our comments section.

- end of initial entry -

Jake F. writes:

For all that this place is completely screwed up, I have to love the people here.

From the CBS New York article about the subway muggers:

Police said [the female mugger] has the tattoos “Loved” and “Hated” on her arm. Some straphangers said those tattoos are half right.

I love the New Yorkers who made the joke, and the reporter who reported it.

Paul K. writes:

“They look pretty young and it’s sad because they have such a great life ahead of them and there’s so much more they can be doing,” said Gwen Everett of Bed-Stuy.

Sure, they could be architects and engineers! Isn’t that what schoolteachers are always telling their black students that they should aspire to? As Gwen Everett is no doubt aware, a lot of successful people started out as armed robbers before they found a better career focus.

LA replies:

Especially today! Elite universities, particularly Harvard, make a point of admitting students from backgrounds immersed in crime and drug dealing. That’s how Harvard admitted Brittany Smith of New York City, who was involved in a drug based robbery in a campus dorm that ended in murder; was expelled just before her graduation, and now has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Former Harvard student Brittany J. Smith confirms her guilty plea on Friday for
her role in the May 2009 killing of a Cambridge drug dealer Justin Cosby in Kirkland
House. Smith was sentenced to three years in prison plus two years of probation.

Another Harvard student, Channequa Campbell, of Brooklyn (I think Bed-Stuy), was also kicked out of Harvard for knowing about the planned robbery beforehand and not telling anyone. She admitted dealing drugs for four years at Harvard. She has not been charged with a crime.

In the article, notice this:

“But on May 18, a 21-year-old African-American male, a non-Harvard student named Justin Cosby, was shot in the Kirkland House basement, in what was reported to be an attempted drug rip-off gone wrong.”

An armed robbery gone wrong! The PC police and media just can’t get enough of that “gone wrong” phraseology. There is nothing, short of murder, which cannot be implied to be OK, but which which only become objectionable after it has “gone wrong” and turned into murder.